Afterlife
by it makes sense in context
Summary: For it is in passing that we achieve immortality.


Pyrrha Nikos had always known she would die in battle, and yet she had always thrown herself into the thick of them. She made them her job, her legacy, and was determined to be the best, even if only so that she could go down in a blaze of glory.

And yet, she did not feel very glorious. Standing the Antechamber, lost, confused not sure of what was going on. Around her people moved, some moving on, some just milling around, some greeting lost loves for the first time in years. And still she stood staring around her at the white marble floor and pillars that seemed to go on forever, impossibly high and impossibly far. It had all happened so fast. One moment there was pain and struggling for breath, the next she was here.

"Hey lady make up your mind. You moving or not?" A haggard man brushed past her, blood still seeping from a wound in his shoulder.

"I – I – I – " Pyrrha stumbled over her words. Glancing down she saw the bloody hole in her chest, her breath hitching as she remembered how hard her last few living breaths had been. "I don't know. I don't think I can just yet. I don't know if they're all okay. I don't know if he's okay! What did I do, why did I do that I made it worse! I don't know!" Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes.

"Then just stay." The man nodded. "Some do. Peace will come. You will know when you need to move on." He patted her on the shoulder and gave her a warm smile. "You will be fine, and I'm sure they are all okay."

And then she waited. For Pyrrha there was no peace to be found, he had had few regrets when she died, but she wanted answers, she needed to know if she had actually managed to save her friends. She waited for long agonising stretches of time. People came and went, some with faces all too familiar. Some were students killed in the same battle she was, some killed later. She saw teachers and friends and enemies. She saw the face that haunted her, that had ripped away all that she had held dear. In any other situation Pyrrha would have borne ill will for the woman, but here she did not, for she had learned that all were equal in death.

Some of these figures stayed for a while, waiting for their own peace, but they all left in time. She spoke to those who stayed, but none of them knew if their friends were okay, if the day had truly been saved. There was a war going on she heard. One for the fate of Remnant, one that would decide the path of the future. But still these were not the answers she needed to find peace.

She didn't know how long she waited. It felt like an eternity. It passed in the blink of an eye. And then she saw him. Slightly taller, more haggard looking, covered in the filth and grime of battle, blood the belonged to him and to others. He was bleeding from more wounds than she could count. Crocea Mors hung from his limp fingers as he stared about him, his face changing from fear and anger to wonderment.

"Jaune?" The words escaped her lips almost unbidden and he saw her.

"Pyrrha." He crossed the distance between them, pulling her into his arms and crushing her to his chest with a strength she hadn't known from him. "It's been too long. I – we all – missed you so much."

"I'm so sorry." She was crying again, tears mixing with the filth of battle as she tried to hold him closer. "I'm so, so, sorry."

"It's not your fault –"

"I didn't even say goodbye properly, Jaune." Pyrrha said. "I just I left you and I thought I could make a difference and all I did was die and start a war and –"

"Pyrrha you're fine. None of it was your fault. I should have been strong enough to stop you and to help you – "

"We both would have died on top of the tower." Pyrrha felt bitter as she said it. _Died_. That's what they both were. _Dead_. Gone. "Did – did we win?"

He shook his head. "I don't know. We were almost done, I took a blow meant for Ruby. She's the only one who can win this. But we were all so low on aura, I don't know. But hey, you saved us all. That's what Qrow says at least. Oh God I missed you so much Pyrrha."

"How long has it been?" Pyrrha didn't know, there was no way to tell time in the Antechamber. To her it could have been hours or decades and she would never have known. "You're taller. And stronger."

"One year, eight months, and sixteen days." Jaune murmured into her hair. "I missed you every day Pyrrha."

They stayed like that for a long while, just holding one another, almost as though they were trying to make up for lost time. But they had forever now, an eternity to just be there for one another, to say the things they never did because she was to shy and he too dense. They ended up sitting against a pillar, waiting for someone who did have the answers they wanted, so that then, when they both knew and had achieved true peace, they could walk off into the distance to find out what was next for them.


End file.
